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Sunday, August 8, 2010

Cartels Pay Corrupt Cops $100 Million a Month

The Associated Press

Mexican authorities said at a forum that drug-trafficking gangs pay around 1.27 billion pesos (some $100 million) a month in bribes to municipal police officers nationwide

Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna said that figure was calculated based on perceptions of municipal officers themselves and an analysis of a list of cops recruited by the cartels that was found during a police operation.

“Organized crime pays some 1.27 billion pesos a month to municipal police, because that’s the portion of the salary the government does not pay the officers so they can live with dignity,” the high-ranking official said Friday.

Speaking on the final day of a meeting of the Association of Mexican Municipalities, or Ammac, held in the western port city of Puerto Vallarta, Garcia Luna said that of the country’s 165,510 municipal officers nationwide, just over 20 percent earns less than 1,000 pesos ($79) a month, while 60.9 percent earns no more than 4,000 pesos ($317) monthly.

The secretary, who backs President’s Felipe Calderon’s proposal for a single police force per state, said municipal officers currently account for 38.73 percent of all police in the country, adding that rather than combat crime they merely comply with the guidelines of their jurisdictions.

Among those attending the gathering, titled “Toward a police model for the Mexico of the 21st century,” were public-safety experts from Spain and Chile and Mexican authorities from the different branches of government.

Federal police in Ciudad Juarez apprehend their commander after being accused of collaborating with organize crime.

Attendees concurred that the country’s safety problems do not lie in the police forces themselves but rather in the law-enforcement personnel who make up those departments and who are in need of training and strict oversight.

“This situation makes it necessary to implement (a single police force) in each of the 32 administrative divisions,” Garcia Luna said, adding that that proposal is not some stubborn idea on his part but rather something that is for the good of the country.

Nevertheless, no consensus was reached at the end of the forum on the idea of a single police command.

During the two-day Ammac meeting, the mayors argued for the need to maintain the local police forces as the foundation for combating crime, while state and federal authorities insisted that a single police force was the only solution.

The mayor of Mexico’s second city, Guadalajara, and vice president of Ammac’s west region, Aristoteles Sandoval, said the creation of a single police command per state will not solve the country’s public safety problems and said the problem is a lack of resources, infrastructure and weapons.

Nearly 30,000 people have died in incidents blamed on organized-crime groups, mainly drug traffickers, in Mexico since late 2006, when newly inaugurated President Felipe Calderon deployed tens of thousands of soldiers and federal police to nearly a dozen states in a bid to stem the violence and root-out corruption in local law-enforcement agencies.

State and local police in Mexico are poorly paid and are often confronted with the choice known here as “plomo o plata” (lead or silver): accept a bribe for looking the other way or get killed for refusing.

During Calderon’s tenure, a total of 915 municipal police, 698 state police and 463 federal agents have been killed at the hands of criminal gangs, according to Public Safety Secretariat figures.

Most all criminals no matter how bad they were on the outside of jail are big crybabies when in jail. Makes me wish their victims could see them crying and being the big pussies they really are. Anyone can be a bad mother fucker when armed with a firearm and their victims are not. This guy needs to be put to death for soiling the honor of his profession and Mexico.

I take it the said amount is total amount based on the contribution of all the Mexican cartels, not just one or two, because that adds up to $1.2 billion annually. Granted, it's just a tiny fraction of what the riches man in Mexico (and the world) banks in. But that's still a lot of money.

His own officers accuse him of assisting the cartels ...perhaps not directly committing murder but perhaps an accessory to murder by knowing his actions would cause the death of persons...I don't know, however it does not matter because their is no captial punishment in Mx, and from what I am reading there will be no investagation of these alledged bad officers just a transfer. If so the mutiny was for nothing.

Well, where do I begin?First of all, there is no coherent expertise that the so called experts from Spain can contribute to the troubles in Mexico. I live in Madrid, Spain and I can tell you that the police here while may not be as corrupt as they are in Mexico, they do have their fair share of corruption. Also, how can they pretend to offer expert opinion when they themselves are puppets of their political superiors as well? A very famous case here is that a high ranking national police officer alerted separatists ETA members of an imminent police raid upon one of their hangouts, is not that the same thing that happens in Mexico but on a minor scale?. Here National Police is so lazy (and believe me, being lazy is as bad as accepting bribes from the public) that they are more concerned with drinking their cup of coffee than to truly protect the public. Believe me, if Spain were to be located geographically next to a country like the United States I am sure they would have had the same problems that Mexico has or probably even worse. So Spain, fuck off!!! Stop pretending that you are developed nation helping the third world, because even though you think you are not part of the third world just because you are in Europe you are as much a third world country as those you are pretending to help. By the way, the country's name is MEXICO with an "X" not Mejico with a "J". They contend that if they write the name of Mejico with a "J" then everybody in México should do it too, pretentious assholes.Second of all, it is very clear to me why federal law enforcement wants to get rid of state and municipal police, come on people! It is simple math, federal law enforcement is tired of sharing the profits with local law enforcement, if they were to succeed it would be 1.27 billion pesos more for them, and that folks is not just pocket change, a motive strong enough to even try to amend the Constitution, wouldn’t you say?Third of all, I am sorry if this happens to be a bit off-topic but it is relevant nevertheless. I am truly convinced that law enforcement in Mexico did not set out to become corrupt in the majority of the cases, what I mean is that a great percentage of officers life's were threaten or worse those of their love ones if they didn't go with the program, I truly feel sorry for all of those that had to go on the take or else, what would you have done?

To Vanux...your last paragraph is true. Well intentions soon dissapear when reality hits. About what I would do? Honestly, for me I would be hiking over the fence, swimming the Rio Grande or call a coyote with my family in tow...

Prison guards were bribed a lot of money by drug traffickers who were serving their time in prison; they stood by as the prisoners left for a killing attack which claimed 18 lives. Prisoners left in a borrowed vehice (?) and were carrying the guards' weapons. After the killing spree at a party, they returned to prison. Prison guards and director could face a long term in jail. Money and jail, they could risk their lives by taking up these offers.